PSP Guide 0.2

WHY HALO DER- AND WELCOME TO THE PSP STARTER GUIDE V0.2.

It appears you are now the proud owner of a newly hacked PSP! WELL WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH IT, YOU ASK?

Here's what you CAN do:
-play downloaded (hacked) PSP games
-play homebrew games
-use homebrew applications
-play multiplayer using Ad-hoc (NOT WIFI) connections
-browse the internet
-install plugins (PRX files)
-Play PS1 Games

Here's what you CAN'T do:
-update your firmware
-play over the internet
-access the PSN, or the PSN store.
-access youtube.com and watch the videos

In this handy-dandy starter guide I'll give you some pointers on some of the basic stuff you can and cannot do with your new PSP. If you ever are confused by an acronym or a term, look in the Glossary at the end, it should give you some help.

I: Where to look for more info/etc
II: Games (installing and playing and etc.)
III: Applications
IV: The VSH menu and some more stuff
V: Plugins
VI: Glossary of common terminology

If you find any errors, please send a message to [email protected], and I'll throw them in the updated version.

------I: Where To Look

If at any point in this guide you find yourself in a situation where you want to download something or find out info about something, I highly recommend the forums at Psp-Hacks.com, or a similar site. The forums at psp-hacks are very informative, and by making an account there I've found many an answer to a question I've had.

If you can't find your answer/download at psp-hacks, use Google. Google is your friend. And for torrenting games or whatever, I choose the old standard: thepiratebay.org. If you need help using torrents or piratebay, access their help site at piratebay.com/help.



------II: Games

For your PSP, games will fall into three categories- PSP games and HOMEBREW games.

---IIA: PSP games

To play PSP games off of a UMD, simply insert the disk and play as normal. In order to play ripped/downloaded/pirated games, they will usually come in either a .iso or a .cso format. Either of these formats can be played in your psp, simply connect your PSP to your computer via the link cable and place the ISOs or CSOs in the memory stick in the folder ms0:\ISO. [note: ms0 is the location of your PSP memory stick, like D: or F:]

They should all play as usual, access them (like all other memstick files) from Game>Memory Stick on the XMB.

Examples of PSP games: Final Fantasy Dissidia, N+, Metal Gear Solid



---IIB: Homebrew Games

A homebrew game is a game made by a third party other than Sony, such as an independent coder or a PSP enthusiast. To play Homebrew games, place them in ms0:\PSP\GAME. CAUTION: many homebrews do not work, or have major errors. This is not the error of your PSP and is rarely harmful, but it will most likely end most of your homebrew tries in failure.

To prevent this, try to find the highest revision of the homebrew by looking around on forums. There is no universal location to find homebrews, or to find the highest revision of homebrews. In order to keep your homebrews in tip-top shape, it's recommended you manually search for updates every now and again.

Examples of Homebrew games: Cave Story, Geometry Wars, Stakker PSP



---IIC: PS1 Games

To play PS1 games, the process is a bit more complicated, but there are guides online on how to convert PS1 ISO files into PSP-compatible EBOOT files (see glossary if this is confusing).

For the most part, PS1 games are much easier found online and downloaded than compiled yourself. Check TPB for some good ones, just search for "PS1 [game name] for PSP" or something similar.

Examples of PS1 games: Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy IX, Spyro the Dragon



------III: Applications

Applications are nearly always HOMEBREWS, and thus like homebrew games, should be placed in the ms0:\PSP\GAME directory. Like homebrew games, they follow the same rules as all homebrews, and checking for updates and whatnot should be done regularly in order to keep them at their peak condition.

Examples of Applications: Bookr (this thing!), PSP Filer, Ultimate PSPTube, gbSP GBA emulator



------IV: The VSH Menu

The VSH menu is a menu added by the GEN-D3 Firmware. This menu gives you some more advanced options and can be accessed by pressing SELECT on the home menu screen. It has a multitude of options, but the ones that you will probably ever need to tweak are the UMD ISO MODE setting, which can help if certain ISOs are not working/loading, or the XMB CLOCK SPEED setting, which can be tweaked down if you would like longer battery life in menus at the cost of speed.

The Recovery menu is another utility added by GEN-D3 that can be accessed by pressing R and UP when the PSP is restarted. This menu will probably not be necessary to be used, but in times where you need to change plugins (see the Plugins section of this guide) it might be useful.



------V: Plugins

Plugins (also known as Modules or PRX files) are files marked with a .prx extension that are placed in the ms0:\seplugins directory on the memstick. These plugins do things that simple applications cannot, such as change the time/date string on the XMB or give you the ability to install new themes. There are two steps to installing a plugin file.
Step 1: place the .prx file in the memory stick in the folder ms0:\seplugins.
Step 2: change either the file vsh.txt or game.txt to add the directory of the plugin file and a 1. Example:
--vsh.txt:
--ms0:\seplugins\supervsh.prx 1
--ms0:\seplugins\vshpong.prx 1

Placing a 0 next to the plugin turns it off. This can also be accomplished in the Recovery Menu (referenced in chapter IV).

Examples of plugins: Ultimate VSH menu, Dayviewer, PSP Cheat



------VI: Glossary

Here you will find a glossary of terms that stumped me back when I was a n00blet.

Bricking- An unfortunate condition in which your PSP becomes unusable via a software error. I hope it never happens to you.

CFW- Custom Firmware. A Firmware not licensed or endorsed by Sony. Ex: 5.50 GEN-D3, 5.00 Prometheus m33

CTF- Custom Theme File, for use with CXMB.

CXMB- A popular plugin file (prx) that allows the use of custom theme files (.ctf)

Emulator- A program that can play games/files developed for another system, e.g. a GBA.

flash0- A partition of the PSP's internal flash memory that stores things like menu look, click sounds, and etc. Recommended not to touch

GEN- a type of CFW. Created and maintained by the GEN team, it's currently on 5.50, meaning that it's based on the OFW 5.50.

Homebrew- A game or application made by a third party other than Sony.

m33- Name for a CFW suffix, like GEN-D3 m33. The actual tool is a kernel exploit that allows for ISO loading.

OFW- Original Firmware. Firmware endorsed and developed by Sony. Ex: 6.30, 5.00

POPSloader- The part of the PSP firmware that allows for play of PS1 games.

PTF- Playstation Theme File. A theme file for the XMB that will work without CXMB.

Prometheus- A type of CFW, like GEN.

RCO File- A file in flash0. Like flash0 itself, these are probably best left alone.

Semi-bricking- A brick wherein the Recovery Menu is still accessible.

XMB- The Cross Media Browser. The default main menu on PSPs.

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(c) Emb3r_Sil
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